


Before I dive right into you

by tothemovies (jarofactonbell)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV Outsider, Relationship Study, Volleyball Dorks in Love, a couple without being a couple, some dumb volleyball sons that their school mutually adopts, tag yourself i'm itachiyama trying to find out if these two are dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 00:33:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17012130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarofactonbell/pseuds/tothemovies
Summary: The Itachiyama volleyball club collectively and individually give curious minds the equivalent of Facebook's It's Complicated and ???? in real life speech. Nobody really knows if the graffiti movement of Komori+Sakusa circled in a red spray painted heart will be confirmed as legitimate. Are they partway platonic and a little romantic or they're just Dudes Being Bros™?Nobody knows. They spend too much time not asking and not telling. If there is anything, they have to protect their own. If their own are a couple of dumb gay volleyball sons, then so be it.





	Before I dive right into you

**Author's Note:**

> Look at me back at it again with my komosaku shipping agenda - I couldn't write anymore than the whooping 14k I did before, but some stories have to be shorter than others - so this is what it is, 4.1k of a Mess 
> 
> Inspired entirely on my own [headcannon](https://twitter.com/tacobell_com/status/1070478126424051713?s=19) because part of shipping a rarepair is generating your own content because no one else is going to ship them and make the content you want to see so you have to do everything yourself
> 
> Song title from Ed Sheeran's Dive

As far as anyone in Itachiyama is aware, Sakusa Kiyoomi, germaphobe overlord, glaring expert and volleyball idiot, explicitly hates being touched.

People who brushed against him or his uniform in the corridor receive this eerily catlike hissing where Sakusa turns and looks at them as if they've told him volleyball is just a hybrid of hot potato and don't let the ball touch the floor. It's a very severe look, up there with Hoshino from the financial branch of the student council and her utterly disappointed stare whenever someone suggests buying another vending machine at the weekly student council meeting. There is no good sportsmanship handshake with Sakusa, nor there is any high fives or fist bumps or shoulder bumps - he prefers all humans approximately three buildings away from him and actively goes out of his way to avoid human contact. There are just no exceptions. The No Touchy rule applies to everyone - and they can just all suck it up and move away from the human equivalent of a cactus, all hissing and hostile at any person who approaches him.

And on the other side of the spectrum - wait no, scrap that, on another spectrum and far away from any sort of measurement - sits Komori Motoya. Very tall. Super tall. A tall bean, a friendly bean, a greyhound in human skin.

That was the impression before he hugged anyone.

Oh gosh.

Oh _gosh._

The volleyball team knows him for approximately twelve minutes and in that time they already put a ban on physical contact for Komori.

See, Komori is very affectionate. Too affectionate. He may look like a puppy, cute and lovable, but when he hugs, he cuts off all circulation and he never lets go. A barnacle in hugs. Literally an extra hard crustacean. The hardest one out there in the wide big ocean.

As a precaution, people keep Komori and Sakusa separate, because they don't want to render the school to a demolition site because Sakusa punted Komori through three floors and grind his bones with the bottom of his shoes.

That was the Original plan. Then the plan got lost along the way because the school is big and teenagers in high school are forgetful because they have priorities outside preventing local disasters from happening, like passing tests and turning up to club activities, that they pretty much gave the green light for Komori to ambush Sakusa.

Weirdly enough, by the time someone in the volleyball club noticed that - Oh no, we've let loose the Hugging Crustacean - it's already too late. Komori had imprinted onto Sakusa. Or the other way around. Whichever. That's not important. What is important and simply just too baffling is the sight of Komori happily chattering away at Sakusa, the distance considerably closer than what the curly haired boy would have preferred in all circumstances.

“Yo,” someone had asked, “what.”

That was sadly the entire question.

“I don't know either, so I'm going to go with that answer,” someone whispered back, staring unabashedly at the pair who were actually interacting. Sakusa was nodding and looking at Komori while the slightly shorter boy talked with his hands, body experiencing a full body spasm.

 

(“Hey,” someone says from above him. Kiyoomi doesn't care to look up - they most likely weren't even talking to him in the first place anyway, as always.

A rustle.

Then brown hair and bushy eyebrows in his line of sight.

He freezes, towel gripped tight between his fingers. He was cleaning a volleyball, fingertips loosely grasping a sphere and slipping. He's sure he isn't replying - he's only scowling in open aggression at someone approaching him out of free will, friendly and all smiles, set on humiliating him for sure. Nobody approaches Kiyoomi, because they're not insane nor do they have an open death wish to being maimed till next Friday. This person is either oblivious to gossip or he doesn't seem to have a working sense of danger, providing that Kiyoomi is emanating killing intent straight off his pores and the whites of his eyes.

“Mornin’,” the boy grins. “Wanna stretch together?”

Kiyoomi stares at him further, the loud why sitting unsaid in the air.

“Don't give me that. You're Sakusa, the really good spiker right? Gotta keep yaself in top form,” the boy beams brighter, eyes scrunched into lines of smiles behind closed eyelids. Kiyoomi doesn't know what to think about this extended display of friendliness, but he senses there's a catch to it.

“Can't you stretch with anyone else?” He jerks his head, voice rough from disuse. There's no need to talk if he doesn't have a need to.

“I want to stretch with you!” The boy insists. “Everybody else isn't tall enough.”

“So all I am is just a set of long bones for you,” he drawls, getting up.

“And a good player!”

“Uh huh,” he admits, “that's believable.”

“Believe in me a little, why don't ya?” The boy would step closer and he would step further away.

Or so he thought.

“I react violently when I'm touched unannounced,” he warns, tone lightly defensive. The boy shrugs, fluffy hair bouncing a little on his forehead.

“Okay,” he tells him, “I'll announce when I'm going to touch you. It's all good. We can work something out.”

“You're quite fixated on me to reach this very inconvenient compromise,” Kiyoomi observes and makes no move to remove himself from the general vicinity concerning this strange creature, this alien, this wonderful idiot who chose to affiliate himself with Scowling Sakusa of Itachiyama Academy. “It should be flattering, but it isn't.”

The boy remains wilfully bright. “I'm interested in learning more about volleyball. I'm a libero, by the way, Komori Motoya, local barnacle boy, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

It must be a sort of cosmic joke, because they're two people at different ends of different spectra, who are here and cohabiting the same space and disturbing the natural peace and order of the volleyball gym. Mix them together and there will be a perfect zero, total annihilation of everything and anything in their path of destruction seeing as Kiyoomi hates hugs and Komori excessively dishes them out. Kiyoomi doesn't shake the hand offered in front of him.

“Sakusa. I don't shake hands.”

Komori withdraws his hand and stuffs it in the pocket of his jacket, smile never once wavering.

“That's alright. Good to know your name, Sakusa-san. How do you want to stretch?”

It has to be an elaborate prank - he is the picture perfect definition of high maintenance. It is simply too much of a hassle to converse and interacted with him for this long. There is a list drawn out of his dislikes that puts many persistent souls off from pursuing friendship with him. He requires care and excessive avoidance in the same breath and most things set him off in a hissy fit. No sane person with working nerves wants to associate with him or work with him, period.

“You're doing this as some sort of elaborate prank, aren't you,” he tells Komori. It's not a question.

“No,” Komori answers, just as offended as Kiyoomi posing the possibility of him laughing inside his head at being able to rile up the school's social pariah. “I want to talk to you? Be your friend? Help you to be a more tolerable human being?”

“But why?” Kiyoomi is puzzled. “Sounds dodgy to me.”

“Because,” Komori shrugs and never elaborated on the rest. “Because.”

“That tells me jackshit,” he scowls, the first real emotion showing on his face since the time he woke up.

“Sounds like a you problem, Sakusa-kun,” Komori trills and drops to a lunge.

 _Don't do it,_ his head warns him. _It's a trap._

His heart whispers back, just as fervently. S _how the brat what's up and scare him away. Use your meanest face_.

He drops to a lunge, scowling as he makes eye contact with Komori's eversmiling eyes.)

 

What started as neglect on supervision of Barnacle Boy Komori evolves into the weirdest and most unbelievable pairing of all time. People don't even bother with gaping widely whenever they see Komori just casually dropping into Sakusa's class and chatting anyone's ears off.

“Let's go to tanabata together,” Komori would tell Sakusa. Whatever silent communication schemes they work out between the two of them remain one of Itachiyama's biggest mysteries because Sakusa would say nothing and Komori would beam as if there was a contract drawn out for a meet up, despite there being no words being spoken.

Nobody is quite sure if that particular meeting reaped success, but Komori’s bag has a recognisable charm, sold from the local festival that hosts the annual tanabata celebration, so he definitely went. Sato from Sakusa's class told Suzuki at the sports festival that a matching charm nearly fell out of Sakusa's bag the previous week, but that's only conjectures and nobody has enough time or investment to further investigate the mysteries of the matching charms. If anything, Komori most likely strong armed Sakusa into buying a matching charm with him so ‘we match’ and Sakusa was too lazy to take it out of his bag because he was too lazy volleyball-ing.

(Komori said “Let's to to tanabata,” but really, he meant “We are going and your attendance is mandatory.”

Somehow Kiyoomi is letting this tall brat of an aberrant libero bully him to going everywhere. He had tried every single thing that had put everyone, including his father and extended family, away from his general vicinity. Yet it all fell to shambles around Komori Motoya. Goddesses alive, even his name is stupid, like the person. He made some futile signs that really came off as _which place are we meeting up at_. Komori tapped back a _your front door duh, I'm getting your address from your phone, cool, see you._ He can kiss goodbye to the privacy he had claimed monopoly over when this brat decided he was a good victim to come bowling into the privacy and life of someone.

Kiyoomi contemplated throwing himself out the window when he heard the hard three knocks on his front door, but then the only three people who could revive him on the face of this earth are in the same premise, so he's screwed dead or alive. Reluctantly, he opened the door to let Komori inside, his mother and sister gushing about how he got adopted by someone else, at long last. They love Komori already. He can't escape any of this.

"Ready?" Komori asked, which was just a thinly veiled  _okay let's go before all the food goes._

He dutifully shut the door and tailed Komori like a defeated shadow anyway.

 

“Sakusa-kun, how accurate is your aim?”

“You want me to get you a prize, don't you.”

“Ay, at least make it sound like a question. I want the contentment and sorrow matching pair. I'll hold your bag.”

“I have literally never played this game before. Aren't they all rigged?”

“Your spikes are rigged. Give it a try, and if it doesn't work out then we'll get matching masks!”

Kiyoomi had sighed, but went to stand in the queue of people eagerly aiming to win a prize anyway. Tennis toss. He never played baseball. This and that are different. It wouldn't -

 

Komori bullied him into keeping the contentment half of the pair charm. Kiyoomi had yet to take the damned thing from the bottom of his bag. It nearly fell out when he took out his books. Someone saw, but said nothing. Probably thought it was Komori's, or his sister's. Kiyoomi since keeps it in the pocket he keeps his face masks. It can be safe there, kanji carved on wood, meant to bring contentment, supposedly, to its wearer.)

 

Like all weird things that go down in Itachiyama, Komori progressing to cuddling status and Sakusa allowing him to shocks about three people and then everyone just accepted it and moved on. But really. These two have no concept of personal space, or individuality. It’s as if they’ve fused into one person, and they just happen to have two bodies. They come as a pair, buy one get one free whether you like it or not, and the vast amount of people who held the briefest fancy of either boys drop their fanciful feelings and wake themselves up from fantasy. As members, one of them a regular, of the prestigious volleyball club, they are held in regard as distinguished athletes who have good physique and pretty faces. As far as superficial high school students’ judgement stretch, they tick many boxes for Desirable Bachelors, which many could go there, if they’re delusional or stupid enough to. The very big factor of They Have Each Other puts a large portion of admirers off their collective backs and gradually, people just cease entertaining romantic endeavours towards the Sakusa/Komori dynamic.

But how could anyone? These two go everywhere together. During bus rides to and from practice gyms, they’re sharing earphones and falling asleep on each other's shoulders. There are photos that Komori shows people and gushes on about how ‘squishy’ Sakusa looks. They help each other stretch and Sakusa lets him manhandle his angry bitch face and 182 cm of aggressive volleyball player into a safe stretching position.

It is baffling. The school loses its collective shit for a whole day after that went viral, along with eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence. Anyone with eyes knows Komori crashes Sakusa's class to give him surprise hugs or just to ‘hang out’.They go to the canteen together and hold hands at the queues. They hold hands everywhere - on the way home, on the train, in the hallways. All of this transpired within six months of their first year. Nobody asked which spell or potions Komori slipped Sakusa to mellow him out this way, to the point where he no longer actively scowls at people when they forget he doesn't do the whole I'm a Human gig and Accepting of Accidental Assault. He said sorry last week when he bumped into a teacher. Mrs Honda couldn't believe in reality for a solid five minutes.

(“Why do you hug me so much?”

“There's not exactly a line of people asking me to hug them. So I gotta fill out the hug quota and settle with you. Stop trying to throw me off. I know you did judo, cool story, now stop.”

“Goddess, you're like a leech.”)

Then one day, Sakusa backhugs Komori. The school obviously breaks down in a hissy fit of disbelief. After six months of being manhandled into the world's biggest and grumpiest teddy bear, he reciprocates? The Sakusa with a severe aversion to touching and physical contact, _that_ Sakusa, hugged someone back? It's too good to be real, until Komori lets loose this maniacal peal of cackle and the student body realises he's breaking down because he's clawing Sakusa's arms off and swearing. Maybe Sakusa is more choking than hugging and maybe Komori is lowkey dying of asphyxiation than being hugged, but Sakusa, their resident anti-social idiot is trying his best, and he should be lauded for his efforts.

(“Hey Sa-chan, what do you thi -” Oh he thinks, _alright._ He's going to squeeze the oxygen out from this brat's throat and leave him out to dry to the birds outside on the flagpole -

He wraps Komori loosely in a backhug and _squeezes._ It is a very hard hug. The hardest hug. He is going to goddamn choke this kid to half-death.

“Whoa whoa Sa-chan, stop-” Komori chokes and tries to fight him off. “What are you trying to do?”

“Hugging,” he lies right through his teeth.

“Wow do I have some news to you about physical affection between friends and murder methods,” Komori hacks out a cough.

Kiyoomi squeezes harder, bending them both forward.

“Stop that, Stop. Okay, okay, I won't go to the Sendai conference,” Komori acquieces. “Stop trying to kill me.”

“Nobody will know I was the culprit,” Kiyoomi tells him smoothly. “Nobody.”

“That's lowkey scary, Sa-chan.” Komori coughs.

Kiyoomi feels bad for approximately three seconds, enough to deem one Conciliatory Cough Dispelling Pat on the boy's back enough.

“I am not sorry for doing that,” he admits with zero guilt.

“Ouch,” Komori taps his chest, “I think I lost a lung. It's only a conference, Sa-chan. Why the objection?”

“You have an exam. You cannot fail this exam. Your parents will kill me if you keep leaving for goodwill conferences on the other side of Japan again, on my intervention or not. Just focus for now on passing those tests, then you can go.”

At Komori's crestfallen face, Kiyoomi adds, “There will be others. We can always go in the summer break or Golden Week. You're passionate about helping underdeveloped areas in Japan achieve equality in hygiene and education opportunities and the chances to improve them will pop up.”

Komori touches a hand to his chest. “That was almost nice, Sa-chan.”

Kiyoomi doesn't feel bad when he kicks Komori and he barely is able to dodge.

 

“Don't you want to be hugged sometimes?”

“Please never try to hug me again. I did not appreciate it.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Come here. Come here right _now,_ I'm gonna _break_ your shoulders.”)

 

On a regular lunch break at Itachiyama Academy, people passing by the college prep class 5 can hear Komori prattling away at anyone's willing ears and him goading Sakusa into eating.

It's admittedly weird and unfortunately not an individual or unreturned activity.

They feed each other food, like two people dating, except nobody really knows if they are. They surely act like it - two smart and capable weirdos sharing too much time and belongings all the  _bloody_ time together. From the praise at home economics, they can both cook, so they share cooking and packing bento duties and feed each other at lunch. People suspect this is less out of love and care and more of a tactic for stopping one another from a perceived detrimental habit. Sakusa has a terrible habit of overexerting himself and practicing volleyball the moment lunch starts and turning up late to class after lunch finishes. With Komori strong arming him into having lunch, he is reduced only to the club allocated hours of before school and after it to practice, which is still a lot already, and he's in better condition to play and be around. On Komori's end, he really is forgetful about himself, a flaw that stems from him caring too much about others and prioritising them before himself. Lunch for Sakusa is a necessity, yet his own lunch is not. Sakusa then of course returns all the vindication he stores from being barred from his lunch time practice by forcing Komori to having lunch with him, going so far as to force food into the other boy's mouth when he's being especially stubborn.

It's a bizarre photo from the Daily KomoSaku Show that people occasionally tune in and out of, guaranteed entertainment at any given point of paid attention. Komori is being shown a slice of nicely cut radish by Sakusa's chopsticks, his own fingers picking up an inarizushi from Sakusa's bento, eyes crinkled in a laugh line. Sakusa himself isn't laughing, but he is less prissy than he had been for the whole year, eyes softer than normal, gazing at Komori talking with his entire body.

The picture makes it to the yearbook. Komori keeps it inside his diary.

(“Open up, Saku-chan!”

“At this rate, are you going to call me by my name too, or what, I literally don't care, just -”

“Okay Ki-chan! Open up, eat my damned carrots.”

“I don't want you to call me by my name any more.”

“So what, I'll call you by my name?” Komori teases. “Motoya is fine too, you know. I also don't mind.”

“Yeah sure,” Kiyoomi agrees. “Call me by your name, that _obviously_ works.”

When Motoya found Call me by your name and they're reading it, him in English and Motoya with a translated version, there's a mixture of _oops so maybe we subconsciously referenced a gay book, oh well_ and _wow weird coincidence_. They never mention it again, but occasionally Motoya giggles about how the coincidences match up.

Kiyoomi doesn't think it's a coincidence.)

 

In second year, the two of them are invited and scouted to that National Japan Youth Training Camp after bringing back another Interhigh winner trophy. Nobody was surprised - there were all those volleyball people interviewing the two of them and the sports magazines kept camping out on the front gates to catch them and rope them into sponsorship deals and photoshoots. Someone managed to wrangle Sakusa into an interview and they were collectively ranked as best high school libero, for Komori, and only second year and top 3 national ace for Sakusa.

Off they leave for the national training youth camp and many talk about how even when they go outside of school, they're together. It's as if they can't stand being apart, and fate keeps gluing them together, preferably forever.

(“Kiyoomi, look look, let's go say bye to Kageyama.”

“Let's not. Why do you like him that much anyway?”

“Ey, jealous?” Motoya laughs, high and clear by his ears. “We should have more friends. Let's go let's go, I want to appear nice and friendly.”

“I am not jealous-”

“Who are you trying to fool, pretty boy? Not me, I'm not fooled.”

“I will kick you.”

“Not fooled ~”)

 

There are several unanswered inquiries at the academy that nobody is able to resolve the mystery of.

How did a Pikachu onesie end up in the swimming team’s locker. Is the principal a closet gamer and has knowledge of Twitter lingo. Can Hoshino freeze water with her ice queen stare. Has somebody been killed by Sakusa’s patented National Ace Scoring Point™ spikes.

Are Komori and Sakusa dating, with a lot of red circles and question marks. Someone put up a cork board as a joke, but then sneak photos and interviews and eyewitness accounts went up and it grew from a meme to a fully fledged and quickly dropped whole school investigation on whether there is a Thing or not between the stars of the KomoSaku Show.

The Itachiyama volleyball club collectively and individually give curious minds the equivalent of Facebook's It's Complicated and ???? in real life speech. Nobody really knows if the graffiti movement of Komori+Sakusa circled in a red spray painted heart will be confirmed as legitimate. Are they partway platonic and a little romantic or they're just Dudes Being Bros™? Nobody knows. They spend too much time not asking and not telling. If there is anything, they have to protect their own. If their own are a couple of dumb gay volleyball sons, then so be it.

 

“You know Karasuno is a bit further from here. We should go and see Tobio!”

“Since when are you two friends?”

“Since the training camp. I asked for his contact details and sometimes he answers my texts. I feel like I’m talking to you all over again, except Tobio is very awkward and sweet. The best son. The only son.”

“You already adopted Kourai-”

“Our son, our baby.”

“- and call Atsumu your brother in all ways but blood -”

“I maybe meant Osamu, but same deal.”

“Just because they’re twins doesn’t mean they’re the same person, Toya.”

“Fine, fine, I’m sorry. Point is, Tobio is our youngest child, Eikichi is our middle child.”

“For heaven’s sake -”

“Oh! Tobi! Hey! Thanks for meeting up! Hi!”

 

At the Karasuno gym, because people don’t know the history and dynamics between these two, made the mistake of giving voice to the very big elephant in the room -

“So are you two a package deal?”

“Yep!” Komori clutches Sakusa’s arm right away, as if he’s drawn by magnets to Sakusa’s side.

“Uh huh.” Somehow the club isn’t convinced if _packaged deal_ is enough to encompass what is happening here. “Right.”

Komori tugs Sakusa to the door after waving excessively to Kageyama and wrangling a hug out of him. “We can leave if it’s too busy for you guys to accommodate strangers. Congrats on your final placement by the way, it’s impressive how you all play as a team. I can't wait for next year, where we'll meet again.”

“Is that a promise, Komori-san?” Kageyama speaks, all even voice despite being shaken to next Friday.

“It's a warning. We'll crush you when we meet next,” Komori's smile is dangerous, fully armed with sharp teeth.

“Hurry up before I leave you,” Sakusa tells him from the threshold.

“Later, revengers,” Komori winks and waves, bounding up after the ace.

Whispers rise after their departure.

“You don't think -” Yamaguchi turns to Hinata.

“Nah, no way,” the redhead refutes. “No way.”

“I'm not thinking about it, I'm not thinking about it,” Kageyama plugs his ears, turning way and facing the wall.

“Why do you lot always bring trouble to the club? Is it a skilled player thing? Who's going to pop by next? Shinzen? Shiratorizawa?” Ennoshita asks, and nobody answers.

 

(“So which university are you thinking of, Toya?”

“I don't know, where do you want to go?” Motoya grins.

“That's disgusting,” he says and leans forward to steal a roll of ohagi.

“I'll go where you go.”

“Huh,” Kiyoomi looks down at his university application form. “Seems like we had the same idea.”

Motoya has a line he goes over day in and out. It's a line by Ruth. _Insist not on me forsaking thee: for whither thou goest, I will go_. Well, he tightens the scarf around Kiyoomi's neck, _I'll go where you'll go as wel_ l.)

**Author's Note:**

> My talents include: shipping rarepairs and make obscure and gay literary references in hopes of someone noticing so we can cry about more gay things
> 
> tag yourself i'm komori calling sakusa 'pretty boy' and sakusa just losing it and resorting to violence because wow, a pretty boy is complimenting him and he Can't Deal
> 
> [find me on twitter](https://twitter.com/tacobell_com) and [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/jenny_benny)


End file.
